Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention Hits PS Vita April 17th

Greetings everyone! I’m dropping by to have a quick chat about Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention as it will be hitting both PSN and retailer shelves on April 17th, dood! Let’s jump right into it and talk about some of the brand-new features for its PS Vita debut!

For newcomers, Disgaea is a turn-based strategy RPG where players can move and arrange their characters using a grid-based system to perform special attacks, or team up to do millions of points of damage (often in very comical cutscenes) against their opponents. Disgaea is also known for its wacky cast of characters, one being NIS America’s awesome mascot, Prinny (highly disposable peon penguin demons that explode), all of which are illustrated by Takehito Harada.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice first landed on PS3 on August 2008, and along with it came an extensive amount of DLC featuring a lot of characters from the Disgaea universe. We are extremely happy to let everyone know that all of the aforementioned DLC is already included in Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention for PS Vita, on top of the entire Disgaea 3 game!

We’ve also implemented PS Vita functionality, so now you can control your point of view on the map, zoom in and out, and scroll through menus using the front touchscreen and rear touchpad of the PS Vita. Another great feature included is GPS functionality (for 3G/Wi-fi PS Vita owners) that essentially tracks how far you travel while you are physically playing the game, and translates the distance into an in-game stat boost called “Honor Quotient.” Your Honor Quotient can still be increased by defeating monsters and clearing stages, so you Wi-fi PS Vita users can also take advantage of this new stat feature.

We’ve also added a ton of new story content to the game. First off, we’ve added two new characters, Stella and Rutile – both of whom feature in a brand-new two-episode side story. On top of that, Disgaea 4 fans can look forward to seeing two familiar characters, Desco and Fuka – this time as bosses!? More new stories that have been included revolve around Evil Academy’s first culture fair, Raspberyl’s first love, and the battle for the Aptitude Test. Good stuff!

Skill-wise, we’ve added a new tier of magic called the “Tera” level. These super-special attacks feature cameo characters from various Nippon Ichi games drawn by guest artists. Item-wise, we’ve added the ability to customize the visuals of your favorite item. Basically, this allows you to choose an item graphic from a predefined list and transfer stats from another item over to it. This allows players to make their own original weapon with the visuals of their choice. Previously, Disgaea allowed players to max out weapon stats, but not customize the visuals, so this is a plus for hardcore fans.

Thank you all for taking a gander at what Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention has to offer. With a ton of content jammed inside, on top of the Disgaea series’ infinite replayability, we are confident that Disgaea players new and old will find a ton of fun in this new edition for the PS Vita!

Disgaea definitely does have a lot of RPG elements. It resembles a lot of the tactics based games, where you work off a grid-system to strategically position your characters to destroy all your enemies. That being said, you can level you characters (to level 9999), work on weapon customization, get weapon drops, attain new characters to use, use the store system, plus countless more RPG facets. You also can unlock new abilities/super moves, and access team based attacks by placing strategically placing your characters too.

Looks awesome NIS! I have had it pre-ordered for a while finally a RPG to play on my Vita. Will you guys have a PSP game sale coming up soon on titles like Z.H.P or Prinny 2 to coincide with the Vita release of Disgaea? Thanks.

@1
It has an amazing depth of RPG elements, including the max level of 9999, optional Uber bosses and multiple classes galore. It is packed full of easily 300 hours of gameplay or more if you want to do everything.

Price is $39.99 for the US, not sure about other countries, but around the same price.

Quite old news Sony, but I am glad you are advertising for NIS, they need the money! If you preorder directly from the NISA Webstore you will get an embroidered Disgaea 3 Lint Free Cloth for your Vita, and free shipping and no tax. Just something to consider.

Mmmm, that sounds delish! It’s tough to really hit the right mark between too sweet and the “homemade” taste, so I’m definitely with you on that one! Here in the Netherworld we use only the finest ingredients.

The game I most want for PSVita. I have it pre-ordered and I don’t even have a Vita yet. And probably won’t get a Vita until Gravity Rush comes out. Unless, of course, I get the job I’m interviewing for, then I’ll get a Vita when I get my first paycheck. :p

Hey, can’t wait for the game. Ready to order it “dood!”.
Just had a quick question. Do you have info on how big is the file if I were to DL it? Cause I really want to have the special preorder bonus from the NISA Store, but I would have to pay for import duties (I live outside of USA), so knowing how big the file is will be my decision breaker.
Bests!

1. I thought I read somewhere that this vita version will feature the up-resed art from Disgaea 4. Is this true? If so it’s a must own for me. The primary reason I didn’t buy Disgaea 3 the first time around is because the sprites looked bad on an HD TV.

To answer your questions, unfortunately the Disgaea 3 for the PS Vita will not have the same HD sprites shown in Disgaea 4. Character Bust-ups have been updated, but as for the actual in-game sprites, they remain the same.

However, if you do have a chance, I would take a look at how the game plays on a Vita as it still is a slightly different experience than seeing it on a bigger HD TV. To answer your second question, at the moment we don’t have plans to release Disgaea 4 on PSN, but if anything changes you can bet I’ll be back to talk about it!

This games looks great but I have a few questions:
1) I tried to play previous Disgaea titles and I found it really complicate it, is there any tutorial in this game?
2) Is the PSN Store version of this Vita title going to cost 5 bucks less than the retail version.
Thanks!

There is a tutorial in the beginning of the game that does walk you through the basics while filling you in on some of the story. By the time you get through it, you should have a basic idea of how the game works!

I cannot wait for this game! Day one purchase for me. Got Disgaea 4 and I am playing that in the meantime. Portable Disgaea is always so much better for me though. Keep it up guys, and MORE VITA GAMES!!

The original Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice had a good amount of trophies and in order to platinum the game, it required some dedication. We have also added new trophies for the PS Vita version, so that is something to look forward to also.

At the moment, we don’t have plans for further DLC for Disgaea: 3 Absence of Detention for PS Vita. As for the PS3 version, that definitely is a great idea in regards to the saves, but outside of the original Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice PS3 game, we don’t have plans for a PS3 re-release.

Unfortunately, there are not bonuses for having saves from the first couple of Disgaea games =/ As for Phantom Brave, at the moment we don’t have any plans for a Vita port, but I think that game would work pretty well with the touch controls!

Lastly, as for the horse “item” you referenced, unfortunately it will not make an appearance for the PS Vita release.

after hearing that all of the dlc will be on the game already and no more dlc is coming. i am going to get this game day one. thank you for giving all of that stuff to your customers, it really is a generous thing and i appreciate it.

The Disgaea series is by far one of my most favorite series ever. Really, anything NIS puts out tends to be great. I preordered this game as soon as I could and intend to pick it up day 1. The kick to it all, I don’t have a PS Vita yet. That’s how much I love Disgaea.

I am really hyped for this! I am becoming a big disgaea fan and so is my friend. I been into it since i found out about 4 coming out and now I got Disgaea DS (Still didn’t beat since I got it last year) from the NIS site, Disgaea 3 from my friend as a bday gift on ps3 beat the story and i really wanna improve on this one, got 4 from the NIS site the 119.99 edition, and my parents just got me a vita as a gift and got prinny 1 and my first vita game will be Disgaea 3!!!

° Please enable html5 and flash player to the ps vita.
° Youtube Instagram and Skype app for the ps vita.
° Google Chrome web browser to the ps vita.
° Cross chat platform between ps vita and ps3 users.
° Organize the content of the PSN and add a sort list on the download list by year,month,genre.
° Show to the ps3 users when the ps vita users are conected and enable the present data.
° Full integration of the PS Plus features for vita users enable cloud service.
° Improve the Facebook app of the ps vita.
° Release an avatar pack when the game comes out not 3 weeks laters.
° Fix the ps3 browser and make a partnership with google or mozilla to the next gen console.
° More PSN games to the vita and ports of great titles like journey flower nba jam castle crasher magic orbz pacman closure tetris modern combat ect ect.
° Enable to send pictures from the vita to the ps3.
° Buy Quantic Dream and ThatGameCompany.

° Please ps fans needs Kevin Butler again in the next E3 also Guerrilla Games with the new ip and the vita version of killzone , Naughty Dog with Last of Us, Santa Monica Studio with the secret project,Respawn Entretaiment, The last Guardian
° Sony needs to show Bioshock, Assassins Creeds and Call of Duty for vita.
° Sony needs more game for the PS Vita like Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Phantasy Star, Battlefield, God of War, Infamous, NBA 2K and a Rpg like skyrim
° Drop Price of PS3 and Ps Vita
° A MMO for the ps vita.
° The next console needs a universal party system for all the games.
° Buy at least 2 studio for eclusive development of psn games.
° New PSN Interface for the next console.
° A lot of features for the PSN like Steam.
° Digital Games not at the same price of the disc games.
° Take ideas for the new console onlive services from steam and make a subscription payment program like xbox live but no to expensive.

I have the PS3 version of the game(bought it the month it came out :). I have put 50 hours towards it, but was unable to finish it due to it getting lost while I moved to a new location. My question is will we be able to transfer data from the ps3 version to the vita version ?

You mentioned trophies. I doubt it’s the case (as it wasn’t the case for Street Fighter IV), but will trophy progressions between Absence of Justice and Absence of Detention be at all correlated, or are they separate lists? Either way, is there overlap in which trophies are available, and if so, how much? I don’t see myself going to AoJ with AoD out there (whenever I get on the Vita train), but as a purveyor of lists, this intrigues me.

Absence of Detention’s trophy list does contain some of the same trophies as Absence of Justice, however not all of them. It does however have new trophies added instead. A little over 20 are the same and/or similiar.

I’m glad to hear a version of this game with all of the DLC included, along with some Vita-specific controls will be released. One question, though: as someone that hasn’t played a Disgaea game before, why would you not release the latest game for the Vita, instead of the previous game? Granted, each game is probably great in their own right, but I’m curious why a “new” game isn’t the newest in the series.

Helllo Sony I would like expres what has me concerened and my other five close friends, and almost all of my playstation network friends own a Vita we are a little angry with you by the way you are working with the Vita, is too slow we still cant download from our Vitas playstation one games(any) and psp, only some, another thing that hanst been released yet are the aplications Skype, whats happening that skype isnt avaible to be downloaded yet, I hope that for this week is avaible and I would like to know why the other new aplications havent been anounced. Please speak with the Mozilla Firefox company so they develop a better browser for the Vita, or if not a Google Chrome, what we couldnt believe and astonished us was that the Vita doesnt have adobe flash player, and in internet you cant do almost anything without adobe flash player, we cant see videos from websites please in the next update add Adobe Flash Player 11.1.102.63, belive me you will make me feel glad and all my friends.